Natural Blender review

I bought a breville blend active a while ago and have been making mainly yoghurt and banana based smoothies with a teaspoon of spirulina to give it a boost. These are great for when I'm busy of if I have to leave the house early. After using an app called Lifesum I realised that my "healthy" smoothie wasn't actually as healthy as I thought!

So how do you try a range of different smoothies without having to invest in all the different "superfoods" and "booster" ingredients I keep hearing about? Where do you start? 

So I decided to give natural blender a go, particularly as I found an offer that took £10 off the first 2 boxes.

As with most subscription services, it was easy to sign up and within 5 minutes I had set up a fortnightly subscription (I didn't want weekly in case I got overloaded with fruit and hadn't made them all!). My box arrived as promised on saturday morning.

I unpacked my box straight away and was pleased to see everything was packaged well and all the recipe cards and instructions were included.

Kale-Idascope -The first smoothie was interesting, in that it contained kale, as well as a plum, blueberries and almond butter.

Thai'd Up - The second smoothie was my favourite as im a fan of fruity flavours. it was made of mango, banana, bok choy, lemongrass and coconut and topped up with coconut milk which made it super creamy. I will definately be making this one again

Blueberry  Burst -  I was looking forward to the third smoothie because I’m a blueberry fan but was a bit disappointed that the addition of nuts made this one a bit gritty. I find this with kiwi seeds as well. maybe i need a more powerful blender but i prefer smooth smoothies.

Morning Sunshine - I had the same issue with the fourth smoothie, I had no problem with the spinach but the Hazelnuts again made the texture less pleasant.

The People vs OJ - The final smoothie was a fruity orange based drink and was very refreshing, again the texture was very bitty but it did have a whole raw carrot in it which i dont think blends very well!

Overall I was happy with the box, as its a great way to try things I would otherwise have never bought; such as lucuma or maca powder. I will wait for the second discounted box before deciding wether to keep subscribing. 

I will also try to cost up the ingredients in the this box and the next one to see if its good value.

Christmas Cakes done!

I have just made my Christmas cakes for this year.

Rather than my usual 8" cake, I went for two 6" cakes instead. I did however stick to Delia Smith's Classic Christmas cake as it's served me so well over the last few years.

I'm not going to post the full recipes as you can visit Delia's page by clicking the link above. I will however give a quick run-down of how easy it is to make.

First you want to measure out your fruit the night before and mix with your alcohol of choice! I Chose a lovely cherry liqueur as it needed using up, brandy and other such drinks with a high alcohol content work well.

Give the fruit a good stir whenever possible throughout the evening and next morning to make sure its being soaked nicely.



Next is the Golden Rule of Baking; measure out and prepare your ingredients. There is nothing worse than getting half way through a recipe and having to run out to get something you've missed especially at a crucial time in the method!

Now is also the time to line your tins with a double layer or baking paper as you will be cooking the cake for a long time!

 Sift the flour and other dry ingredients into your largest bowl then add butter, sugar, eggs and treacle and mix with an electric hand blender. I've done this by hand a couple of years and it can be done but just takes a bit longer and usually a tea break when your arm starts to ache!

 Once smooth, mix in all the lovely fruit and the lemon and orange zest before popping into your pre-prepared tins and baking.

How long do I bake my cake for?

Very good question! If you stick to Delia's recipe then its a minimum of 4 hours but could be longer.

If you are using a different sized tin then the times will vary.

Delia also shows how to scale up and down the recipe and the baking times.

Once a skewer comes out clean, cool in the tin for 30 minutes then remove and once fully cool I wrap them in baking paper then tin foil. Feed on a weekly basis until ready to cover: to feel poke a skewer through the base of the cake evenly across the surface then drizzle on a couple of tablespoons of brandy or other alcohol, this keeps the cake moist and preserved as well as giving flavour.

You can make the cake a month in advance or longer if you wish, I would recommend at least 2 weeks to give feeding time!

Next week I will be putting marzipan on the cakes!